Since the Final Fantasy 16 PC version was confirmed last year, developer comments have continually painted the port as demanding, having us fear the worst for our gaming rigs. However, the latest insight from Square Enix has seen a substantial change of heart.
Given the PlayStation 5 origins of Final Fantasy 16, it should come as no surprise that the developer recommends installing it on the best SSD you have to hand. Producer Noaki Yoshia went so far as to say “the HDD would be a pain” by comparison, in the first of his insights into the port.
A few weeks ago, Yoshida warned players that the Final Fantasy 16 system requirements are “quite high”. While this could still be true come the Final Fantasy 16 PC release date, observed frame rates recently shared by the developer give cause for hope.
Speaking with MMORPG.com, Yoshida was asked about any PC-specific enhancements that we can expect to see from the Final Fantasy 16 port. The most exciting part of his reply, was that the development team has seen “some hardware getting that framerate up over 100 (fps) in places.”
Yoshida stopped short of providing any specifics such as resolution or quality preset, but rightly caveated that performance will “depend on the hardware that you have.”
Thankfully, you’ll be able to assess your rig with the upcoming Final Fantasy 16 PC demo. Yoshida encourages players to download the demo, highlighting that the team “don’t want people buying the game on PC and finding out it doesn’t run on their computer.”
Unlike many other PS5 ports to PC, specialist Nixxes Software is playing no part in the development as Final Fantasy 16 isn’t a PlayStation Studios title. This makes it harder to judge exactly how well the port will be handled and what system requirements the game could ultimately land on. As we’ve seen in recent releases like Dragon’s Dogma 2, poor optimization can lead to a rough release, and Square Enix will want to avoid such a fate for its leading franchise.
If you’re wondering what the best graphics card will be for Final Fantasy 16, give our GeForce RTX 4070 Super review a read as we’re confident it’ll be more than up to the task.